You're Still Stupid
by Couver
Summary: "Of course, if you die and mess up the team then I'll probably get stuck with a new idiot." Laura was positively baffled as he continued to beam at her as if she had just given him a new surfboard.


**Disclaimer:** All characters are owned by Marvel

A grunt escaped from a less than cheerful brunette as she dodged a swinging robotic arm that had just now chosen to reveal its presence. Ducking past it she pivoted off of one foot before placing a well aimed kick to the base of the swinging device, not exactly breaking it off but slowing its speed down to a few jerky movements. Turning her attention back on the task at hand she quickly spotted the white flag waving from its spot on the wall.

The others seemed busy but it appeared as if they could handle it. The multiplying boy was running around providing a distraction with his five, no six, probably five duplicates, the volcano and explosion girls were providing a good cover from the points she had put them in and the wolf was getting a bit of help from the laser shooter. That left finishing the task off to her, simple enough.

It surprised her the way the others would complain about the set tasks afterwards, they would groan about pain and lack of sleep, always calling for the icy boy to help out their pains. X on the other hand had had plenty of visits with all of the instructors, even Logan and the Professor, about turning up the intensity on the sessions. For some reason they had told her to "take it easy", apparently she had skills she had to develop yet. X wasn't sure how she should have reacted to that, angry that they didn't believe her to be capable, or amused because HYDRA would have been insulted even more. Either way she had been kept on the team, probably to keep their heads attached to their bodies.

Scnickt.

Twin blades appeared from both hands as she started her dash to the flag, serpentining to distract the guns that would shoot on their own schedule. A grin was starting to come up now, this was what she had been trained for, not just killing.

Snickt.

The blades protruding from each foot came next as she leaped toward the wall, hands and feet ready to collide with the metal wall awaiting her. She collided, just not with the wall she had planned. Instead a figure in dark blue had barreled her over, causing her to crash into the ground and tumble over. Opening her own green eyes up she glared at the blue eyes that even dared to look back at her. Sitting up and pushing the teenage boy off of her she was practically snarling, her lip rising slightly while her eyes narrowed.

"What was that for?" She growled as he started to regain whatever senses he claimed to have and she went into a defensive position, ready for any other surprises that might be sprung up on them. The blonde boy instead of answering her, as he was supposed to, instead shook his head in a manner similar to that of a dog and then pointed to the wall she should have already climbed to the top of. Instead of the neat little pin pricks she would have left behind was a blast that the exploding girl looked to be quite proud of. Of course the wall remained standing, the things too close by however, well they simply met the ground.

Her attention was now off the blonde that was starting to stand up. She wasn't even bothering to acknowledge the girl twirling the flag in her hand, the identical boys that were still running around or the girl who had only recently reverted to her less fiery form. Instead she was practically marching toward the blonde girl who was chewing bubble gum in an annoying manner and tossing a small orange orb in her hand.

"Hey Laura, that was better right?" Amara looked up hopefully at the slightly older girl, looking slightly hurt when she was passed her up for her friend.

"What the hell was that?" Laura was practically seething as she stood in front of the careless girl, clenching and unclenching her hands to keep them from more familiar activities.

"What? We got the flag." The blonde was as careless with her words as she was with her exploding orange orbs.

"You were supposed to cover our backs, you're at your best long or mid range." Of course Laura had gone over this multiple times, she had even written it out for the girl.

"But I was back, didn't you see how far I threw that sucker? It was pretty amazing." That, that _girl_ had the nerve to congratulate herself on messing up.

"I didn't see because instead of retrieving the flag like we had planned, I was busy getting run over by surfer boy so that I wouldn't get hit in the back of the head with that "sucker" of yours." By this point the entire team had gathered around and all were looking from one girl to the other, clearly nervous about what would happen.

"Team, meeting, now." A growl similar to Laura's was heard over the intercom and if possible the nervous members of the team, Amara and Jamie, grew even more nervous about what was expecting them on the other side.

Laura on the other hand seemed eager to get out of the Danger Room, not sure how much longer she could spend near that ridiculous blonde without decapitating her. The quick ride up in the elevator was silent, probably because Laura had chosen to take the stairs and Amara had shut Tabitha up with a stare. While the team piled out into the room to meet Logan they saw that Laura had beat them as usual and was currently facing their instructor, mimicking his actions without a thought.

As usual they were given little time to rearrange themselves before Logan started his report.

"Magma, good job using your powers as a defensive tool, you're control is getting better." The Brazilian girl practically beamed, clearly proud of her accomplishments.

"Multiple, you're getting better too, you need to get more creative though." The youngest boy nodded, taking whatever praise he could.

"Wolfsbane, we'll start training you in your other forms and have you more rounded out." The red head shrugged slightly.

"Havok, good job being a team player, you need to think more about the consequences though. She could have survived that hit, you on the other hand, would have to be peeled off the walls if you had been late." Alex smiled slightly, rubbing his head as he looked down, knowing he was going to hear about the Summers need to save all girls later on.

"Boom Boom," here their instructor paused, took a deep breath, and actually squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Control, self-discipline, team work, some sort of thinking, I don't know what to do with you that doesn't involve a helicopter and some wilderness." No one seemed particularly surprised by his comment, only about the fact that he had really restrained himself.

"Laura, good job, just don't forget you're part of a team, there are moments when you seem to go off a bit." Laura nodded slightly, keeping her face blank at his criticism.

"Overall, that was a sloppy end and I expect more of you to join the six am training sessions. Hit the showers." He waved them off but placed his hand on the shoulder of his young clone, holding her back.

"Kid, you showed some self restraint out there, more than most of us would have. I'm, proud, of you." Neither seemed sure how to act at that point since neither had experience being a father or daughter.

"Ok. Thank you." She replied quickly before following after her team mates, feeling slight guilt that she had just been complimented on her self restraint when she really wanted to carve a few things into that girl's head.

The locker room was quiet except for Rahne and Amara's attempts to lighten up the mood. All attempts were momentarily put on hold when a small explosion went off and Laura visibly tensed, not out of surprise, but out of the need to keep from jumping the girl. If her pride had allowed her Laura would have raced out of the room as soon as her shower was done, instead she forced herself to keep to her usual pace that was sufficiently quick enough. Repeating a small mantra about not cutting off the heads of blondes didn't hurt either. Back in her usual clothes of black pants, dark tank top and converse a small wave of relief washed over her as she stepped out of the girls locker room. A second thought however stopped her from retreating to the living room, she still had some business to deal with. Lifting her head up slightly she sniffed the air quickly figuring out the basic locations of those around her. Turning on her heels she stepped into the locker area, following the sound of movement and steam that still hung in the air.

"Woah Laura what are you doing here?" Alex looked up, clearly surprised to see his teammate in the boys locker room.

"I need to talk to you about something." Her face remained its usual neutral, or as the occupants of the mansion had dubbed it "The Logan Poker Stare".

"Now, here?" He looked around but they were in fact alone, Jamie had already run off to catch a show, leaving the two teenagers quite alone.

"Yes, I don't see a problem, you are dressed." She pointed out and it was true, he was in shorts and a t-shirt. Nevertheless he still blushed for some odd reason, probably something to do with hormones she concluded, they could be blamed for most stupid or odd actions. Being of the male gender was also commonly used as an excuse for stupid behavior. Now that he wasn't about to stop her she continued with what she had wanted to say.

"About what just happened with the explosion and you jumping in," she paused and he actually perked up, making her see some similarities between him and Rahne, or a dog, "that was stupid." In an equally similar fashion his head drooped.

"I'm basically indestructible, my body can handle more damage than yours and I have been trained to work past complications till the task is complete." Here she paused and stared at him for a moment, making him feel quite uncomfortable.

"I know that Laur, I still don't think that's a good reason for you to get hurt though." The nickname caught her off guard for a moment but she quickly recovered.

"I don't get hurt on purpose, it just means that I can handle the more dangerous situations better than the rest of you." Now she was leaning against one of the rows of lockers, watching the teenage boy in front of her glance from her to the side in a nervous manner.

"Still," he countered weakly, "that doesn't mean we don't worry about you when you get hurt." This really caught her off guard and now it was her turn to look away. Having anyone _worry_ about her was still a strange concept. For the longest time the people in the house hadn't even known of her existence and yet they now apparently worried, and cared about her. Yet the people that had planned her every movement so carefully couldn't be bothered unless it cost them money. It was still an odd idea to her, particularly so since out of all of the occupants of the mansion she could take care of herself the best.

"You're still stupid," she finally looked back at him, frowning slightly in confusion at the situation before her. "If I get hurt I'll be down for an hour or two, maximum, if you get hurt, you won't get back up." All the comments she had heard from the females of the household about guys being clueless and stupid proved to be true at that moment.

"Look, if you die that'll mess everything up and then I'll get angry and kill you for dying. So just, don't do anything stupid, like dying." Her voice softened a bit but the growl undertone that came up when she was feeling particularly strong about a subject was evident.

He smiled, he actually had the nerve to smile at her! Raising an eyebrow in confusion at him she watched carefully to see if anything was wrong, well, he smelled somewhat sane at least.

"So you do care." He stated simply, still grinning a bit too much.

"Of course, if you die and mess up the team then I'll probably get stuck with a new idiot." Laura was positively baffled as he continued to beam at her as if she had just given him a new surfboard.

"Ok, if that makes you feel better." Now he was pretending to know something! A small growl rumbled in her throat, forcing herself to remember not to hurt him. Make her feel better, about what? What was supposed to make her feel better, she already felt fine. In fact she was probably feeling better than he was, so, ha.

Apparently no one had taught him common sense, or he had been hit on the head with the board a few too many times, something Laura wouldn't object to doing at the moment.

"Really, it's ok Laur, you don't have to make up all of these stories." Her mouth gaped open while he seemed to be particularly proud of himself.

"Why would I make up any story?" She demanded out of the boy that stood a few inches taller than her. Instead of leaning against the locker she was practically in his face, glaring at him, daring him to smile like that again or let some other stupid and odd comment let fly.

For the third time in their short conversation he caught her off guard. Instead of spurting off some random nonsense he simply leaned in quickly and pecked her on the check, leaving Laura for probably the first time in her life, stunned. Still smiling in that annoying Summers boy way he shouldered his bag and left the locker room and a confused Laura Logan.

"Hey! Wait up Summers, what the hell was that for?" She yelled as she came back to life, chasing after the boy that was already running off laughing.


End file.
